Many of the biggest names in Australian Touring Car racing will be on the grid at the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport on March 13-15 for the main races for touring cars from the 1970s and ‘80s.

But while most of the cars in the combined Group C and Group A events will be the actual vehicles that rubbed panels two and three decades ago, most of their drivers have since retired and will only be represented on the cars as part of their original race livery.

The exception is two-times Australian Touring Car Champion Glenn Seton, who ironically will drive a car he never raced in its hey-day – an E30 BMW M3 – competing against a Nissan Skyline HR31 that he did.

The field includes two cars raced by Peter Brock – the four-door Torana A9X he ran on rejoining the Holden Dealer Team in early 1978 and the ex-JPS BMW M3 that he campaigned in Mobil livery; Bob Jane’s former orange Torana XU-1; two famous BMWs raced by Jim Richards – his JPS 635i and E30 M3; the ex-Mark Skaife Nissan HR31; the ex-John Goss 1985 Bathurst-winning Jaguar XJS V12 and a sister XJS raced by Garry Wilmington; two-door Torana A9X models formerly raced by Alan Grice, Kevin Bartlett and Peter Janson; the ex-Win Percy/Neil Crompton Walkinshaw VL Commodore and the rare Mustang GT HO campaigned by Lawrie Nelson and Gerald Kay.

There are four races for Group C and Group A cars on the 48-event Phillip Island Classic programme, with continuous racing for all categories from 9.00am until around 5.00pm on both Saturday March 14 and Sunday March 15.

Practice and official qualifying for all categories will be held from 9.00am until 5.00pm on Friday March 13.

Highlights of the huge historic programme, which is supported by Shannons, the VACC and Cooldrive, include the appearance of four ex-Formula One cars from the 1970s and 1980s, a capacity field of Formula Fords headed by 2007 Australian Champion Tim Blanchard and 1977 Champion John Smith and a 12-lap feature race for the 50-car production car field that includes three De Tomaso Panteras, numerous Porsches, two Ferrari Dinos, a number of Datsun Z sports cars, a Shelby GT 350 and a Corvette.